The Trials We Face
by kitsune21809
Summary: Arnold sighed. "Helga, we've been enemies since pre-school. This is our last year together. Why don't we try to be, I don't know, friends?" That floored her and she stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. "What?" She laughed caustically. "Why?" "Why not?" He grinned. "Shake things up a little." Multiple Pairings. May change to M.
1. Chapter 1

I'm trying to get back into this story and finish it. Although it's a long way from being finished, I do want to at least move it along some. Changed some stuff though as my writing improved.

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><p><em>Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.<em>

-**James A. Baldwin**

"What the hell is this?" Bob's questioning shout echoed upstairs. "Miriam! Wake the fuck up!"

Helga sighed, and rolled over, rubbing a hand down her face as her father's booming voice woke her. Sunlight streamed through her curtains, a line of it fell across her eyes as she moved and she grimaced. She could hear the murmured reply of her mother's voice downstairs as she roused herself from dark depths of the couch cushions where Helga had left her the night before. She couldn't make out what she said in reply but knew it wasn't what her father wanted to hear as he yelled back.

"Where's the money I gave you to pay the water bill?"

Miriam must have managed to drag herself fully into wakefulness as Helga heard her reply. "I paid it last week!"

"Then why is the damn water company calling me saying you ain't paid it yet?" Bob yelled back. "And if you paid it, where'd you get the money for this shit?!"

"I do have money of my own, Bob! I've got almost two-hundred in the bank!"

Helga flung her blanket off her legs and sat on the edge of her mattress, head hung low into her waiting hands as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The voices grew louder downstairs as an argument broke out. She ignored them and started scrounging through her closet for something clean to wear, pushing empty wire hangers aside and throwing older, dirty clothes into her already overflowing laundry basket in the corner of the room. She sighed, realizing she had a butt load of laundry to look forward to when she got home.

There was a crash, the sound of glass shattering against wall and Helga jumped.

"You wanna see pissed off?! I'll show you _pissed off_!"

"Oh, fuck you Bob!"

"No Miriam, fuck_ you_! It smells like a _goddamn _brewery in here!"

The yelling continued downstairs, louder now and she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she pulled on her jeans. She was careful to point her toes down, missing the holes in the knees so she wouldn't accidentally snag and rip them further. She liked these jeans; they were just grungy enough to suit her personality but not so much that she looked homeless.

Miriam shouted something at Bob, shrill obscenities followed by her father's booming roar. Helga ignored them, too busy stuffing her pockets with things scattered across her computer desk before she headed out for school.

Money, house key, gum, cigarettes, lighter, … she searched around for a moment, flipping magazines and old chip bags out of the way to find what she was missing. Her eyes alighted on an object on the desk and she gave a triumphant little grin as she pocketed it.

Pen.

Another crash and Miriam's shriek of anger indicated that Bob had broken yet another of her precious bottles of whiskey. Helga pushed a hand through her hair with a huff as she glanced around the room for her brush. She needed to leave soon before one of them decided to drag her into the argument and she was late for school, if she didn't miss it all together. Which wouldn't bother her but she'd much rather miss it doing something besides fighting with her parents.

She spotted the brush lying partially hidden underneath her bed on the faded, puce colored carpet and scooped it up, carelessly running it through her long, corn-yellow hair. With a glance in the mirror she dropped into on her desk, satisfied she looked somewhat decent now and quickly tied her pink ribbon around her neck along with the friendship necklace Phoebe had given her a few years back. Technically, it wasn't one of the traditional friendship pieces friends tended to give eachother. It didn't have a little heart or clover or whatever with the word 'Best' broken in half with its twin engraved 'Friends' residing with Phoebe. In fact, there wasn't anything about it to make it special. Just a 'Fizz-Baby' bottle cap hanging from a black cord. Nothing special, not to anyone else at least.

The shouts grew louder as she crept downstairs and she distinctly heard their voices in the kitchen to her right.

"You don't give a fuck about anybody but your own damn self! Your drunk ass just_ sits_ here all day while I work to keep us off the street. I don't ask you to do shit! Pay the bills and cook dinner. That's it!" Bob shouted his fist slammed against the table.

"You're being childish!"

Helga paused, watching as Bob ticked off his fingers one by one as he yelled accusations towards his 'beloved' wife of twenty-plus years. Her eyes flickered to Miriam, sitting across the table with her head in her hands glaring at him.

"You're always drunk off your ass. Every time I come home, you're either passed out on the couch or in the floor somewhere. There's _never_ any groceries in the house and you haven't cooked a decent meal since Olga lived here! Last night I had peanut butter and jelly on a paper-fuckin-towel!"

Miriam half lunged out of the seat across the table at him, snarling like a pissed off canine. "I cooked chicken two nights ago Bob!"

"And I ate it! Twice!"

Helga rolled her eyes and snuck into the living room, hoping her jacket was still thrown across the couch. Across the room, the tv droned on, replaying an episode of some game show she never bothered to watch. She stepped over broken glass and whiskey soaked carpet, scrunching her nose at the smell. She grimaced at a half-eaten microwave meal wedged between the cushions of their avocado green couch with the cigarette burns on the seat, inches away from her jacket. Picking it up, she inspected the old black leather with a critical eye.

"Well, I was gonna make spaghetti last night but you don't eat spaghetti! You don't eat it, and you let it sit there and it just gets wasted!"

"Why the hell would you make something if you know I ain't gonna eat it! Use your head, Miriam! Where was Helga? She needs to be here at the house instead of running all over the damn city!" Bob ranted. "Maybe if she was, I could get somebody to go to the damn store!"

"What do you care where she was or what she was doing? You don't want to be bothered with her, you never did!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you giving her such a hard time…"

"Did you hear me give her a hard time?! No! I ain't giving anybody a hard time! _You're_ the one giving _me_ a hard time! You _wrecked_ our family, you _wrecked_ our house and you _wrecked_ our marriage…!"

"Me?! You're the biggest asshole that ever lived!"

"I'm the asshole? No, you're the one with the problem! You're the asshole, Miriam!"

"No, Bob. You're the one that never had time for anybody in this house. Never. You never did anything with your children…"

"It's got nothing to do with them! This is about you and your fuck ups! Now, _shut up_ and go clean up that mess you made in the living room!"

For the first time since she woke up, her mother was silent and just as Helga walked back into the hallway, Bob started up again. "No, _stand there_ for a half-hour while I _choke_ down my dry fucking cereal!" Peeking into the kitchen, Helga saw Miriam leaned against the counter, her arm crossed across her chest, one hand folded over her eyes while Bob sat at the table now eating a bowl full of sugar-pops without milk. Helga frowned. Didn't Miriam just buy a carton the other day? A quick scan of the room found the elusive dairy product sitting by the sink, the contents half spilling onto the floor as if someone had attempted to throw it into the sink and missed. The white lumps in the mess told her that her mother and obviously never put it in the fridge and had left it to spoil.

"Why are you even here, Bob?" Helga's eyes flicked to her mother as she spoke, her hand sliding up her face and into her hair. "Isn't your precious _Joanne_ missing you?" She screamed and Helga winced as the cereal bowl crashed into wall across from her. "You leave her outta this!"

That was it, she'd had enough. Helga slammed the front door behind her drowning out the noise of her parent's yelling and shrugged into her jacket. She didn't know who Joanne was. She assumed it was another one of her father's new 'secretaries' he was so fond of working late with. It didn't matter to her anyway.

A light drizzle had begun early that morning and would more than likely grow into a storm come late afternoon. She sighed and swept her hair back behind her as she began the long routine walk to school.

Suddenly, she found herself scowling, scuffing her feet against the sidewalk as she walked and stuffing her hands into her jean pockets. She was so sick of the fighting. Of the screaming and yelling and pointless arguments that never seemed to end. Helga often wondered why they ever got married in the first place if they apparently hated eachother as much as they did. She didn't remember a time when her parents were ever really, truly happy. Even when Olga was still living at home, they fought and hated each other. It was the reason Olga had left. It was one of the many reasons why Helga hated her.

Olga left her there, alone and helpless against the abuse that she knew would be rained down on her 'baby sister'. Not physical of course. Her father would never be so careless to inflict any injury upon his children, but he was a true believer in the phrase, 'spare the belt, spoil the child'.

They used to be so close, she and Olga. When she was young, Helga adored her, admired her. She remembered how she wanted to be like her and make good grades and dress nice and be fawned over by everyone she met. And Olga loved her as much then as she did now. She would play games with her in the crevices of their little, ramshackle house, and when her parents fighting got out of hand, she held her close under the blankets of their bed and whispered softly to sooth her.

And then she left.

Olga hugged her crying sister goodbye on the stoop of their home, and walked away. Hadn't so much as turned her head as Helga struggled in her mother's grip, crying, pleading for Olga to take her with her. Begging not to be left alone. But the car door slammed shut, Olga disappeared and Helga never forgave her for that.

Then time passed and as Helga grew up, all that anger and hatred began to fade away. She began to realize that life was shit and if you didn't do anything to make something of it, then it would stay that way. She put her past worries aside and started focusing on herself.

She didn't care that when Olga visited, she was pushed aside and left in the dark. Didn't care that she was considered the lost hope of the family, which considering her family, didn't say much. Didn't care that people whispered vile things behind her back. Didn't care that Arnold moved on from girl to girl but never once spared a single glance her way.

It hit her when a man came to their school when she was in the eighth grade. He was one of those do-gooders, Helga remembered. Someone who skipped from school to school relaying their sob story and giving a grand speech on how drugs were bad and you shouldn't do bad things or you'll end up in jail or dead. But only, he wasn't. This man was different.

Helga couldn't remember his name, or what happened to him. But she remembered the words that changed who she was.

_Can you forgive those who've hurt you? Picture yourself in an open area where there's no buildings and no shelter and there's a storm above you and this storm represents your life. You don't tell anyone what you're going through because you think they wouldn't understand or couldn't help you anyway. _

She'd been sitting in the auditorium, barely even listening at all when he'd said it. When the words sunk in, she sat up a little bit more and listened a little more closely.

_You can't spend the rest of your life being afraid of people rejecting you. You have to start by not rejecting yourself. You don't deserve it._

She remembered feeling something swell in her chest. She remembered feeling like he was talking to her, that he knew what she was going through. Of course, it was likely that half the people in that auditorium felt that way, but she didn't care. Because his words had struck a chord in her, made her think about who she was, who she wanted to be.

_From now on, people can either accept you for who you are or they can fuck off! Because when you're in school and when you're growing up in life, it matters what people think of you. How you look, how you act, and the image you present. And then it matters to you because…it matters to others._

_Why?_

Helga had glanced at Arnold ten seats down, whispering to Gerald and grinning silently. She'd looked to her left at Phoebe who had her nose buried in her history book. Things had begun to tie together in her mind then.

_Why does it matter? Because if **they** don't like you…then who will? If **they** don't accept you…then who will? You're so afraid that you're gonna be alone that you're not good enough and you're wrong!_

She thought about her family. About Olga leaving to become an actress. About her father who always came home late. About her mother who drank too much. She thought about Arnold who she'd bullied relentlessly, about the other kids who had been so cruel to her.

_There are some things in life that are out of your control that you can't change. The choice that you have is to either give up or keep going. What are you going to believe in? Are you going to believe in yourself or are you going to believe in everybody else's opinion of you? Are you gonna believe people when they say that no one really likes you, that no one really cares about you?_

These words stuck with her for days after the man had went on his way. And for a long time, she went about her day as if she were in a dream. For the first time in a long time, Helga sat back and watched the people around her. Watched as people shrunk back when she walked by. As they turned to whisper eachother as she entered a room or though she wasn't looking. And the words. The same words just kept replaying over and over in her head.

_Are you going to believe in yourself or are you going to believe in everybody's opinion of you?_

She'd stopped doing anything to Arnold for days and…he never even noticed. Why did she bully him? For attention? For the smallest shred of his…not even affection but annoyed glance? Why? Why was she putting herself though that?

_You can't spend the rest of your life being afraid of people rejecting you. You have to start by not rejecting yourself. You don't deserve it._

No, she didn't deserve it. And it was at that moment, sitting in that dingy auditorium amidst a crowd of half bored teenagers that Helga grew up.

She quit trying to be the better daughter.

She quit trying to bully others for attention.

For the first time in her life, Helga was just…Helga.

And then, without all the stress and commotion she'd felt welling inside since she was young, Helga felt better than she'd had her entire life. But just because she had quit looking for trouble didn't mean she had lost her edge. She still had a temper with a lit fuse. And though people didn't cower in the halls when she walked by anymore, they didn't provoke her either. They knew her reputation and respected it.

Her greatest surprise however, came during her first year of high school. She noticed more and more of her male classmates vying for her attention. Bumping into her in the hallway to get a rise out of her, some watching her in class, others asking to sit with her at lunch. At first she found it all very irritating, but then, somehow it had morphed into pleasant little game.

She learned new ways that would put them on edge. A flick of her hair, a sway in her walk, a different style of clothing that would send a few walking straight into their locker doors and her laughing as she passed. She was a challenge to them, forbidden fruit. They both feared and wanted her. And the select few that were brave enough to step up to the plate, she sent crashing back down again. She had standards of which only one could meet.

However, her favorite little football head was either ignorant of her advances or just plain ignored them. Either way, he never showed any signs of reciprocating her feelings. And with each girl he chauffeured on his arm in front of her, she found her love for him dwindling ever more.

It was after the eighth grade Christmas dance that she gave up on him. He'd taken some random girl, with blond hair and pretty, perfect brows and big, beautiful, brown eyes. They'd been all over each other, and he looked so happy with her that Helga left early that night, unable to take the horrible, constricting feeling in her chest any longer.

Monday, she heard the rumor. He'd taken her to the 'Lover's Lookout' in his grandfather's old Packard and they'd been…intimate, for a substantial dimming down of the rather promiscuous rumor. The girl had been mortified and had broken up with him shortly afterwards. And Helga couldn't even look him in the eye for the rest of the year.

Helga sneered and kicked a can lying against the sidewalk. It skittered across the pavement before bouncing against the glass window of Green Meats shop. Marty Green glared at her from his door way where he'd been sweeping his front step but she ignored him and kept walking.

Afterword, when it was clear he wasn't interested, she tried to actually move on and see if she could find someone for herself.

Someone who wasn't Arnold. Someone who was the exact opposite, who could take her mind off her childhood obsession. Someone who was just as cruel and hard as she was.

She rounded the corner where the brick wall tapered off into a stretch of wire fence bordering the junkyard. Another block and she would be at the high school. She could see the other kids gathered in their own separate groups scattered around the courtyard. She shuddered. She was early.

She faintly heard a low whistle to her right and she half turned, smiling faintly.

"Hey beautiful, why so blue?" He asked, his fingers fisting in the holes of the fence as he smiled down at her. He was covered in grease and his white tank splotched in places where the rain had soaked it. His brown hair was tousled but it was cute in a way and she wished she could reach through the fence and pull it so he would give her that little scowl she liked when she pissed him off. She scowled and looped her fingers over his as she pressed against the fence, her bare stomach cold against the wet metal. "Miriam and Bob wouldn't shut up their bitching this morning, gave me a headache."

She kissed him quickly through the fence loops so he would leave it at that. She couldn't tell him more than that. That their words had hurt her; had made her think of the past and brought up old memories that were better left buried.

"Hey Ludwig! What are you doing over there?" He pulled back and turned scowling to the tall, muscled blond striding towards them and wiping his hands on a dirty rag. "What do you think man? I saw my girl passing by so I stopped her." Helga smirked and waved knowing it would piss him off. "Hey Wolfy!"

Wolfgang groaned and stuffed his rag in his bag pocket. "Oh no, it's the bitch."

Helga feigned hurt.

"Aww, you're not still sore that I bruised your pride in that arm wrestling match are you Wolfy?" She simpered then gave a wicked grin. "Or was it your arm?"

He growled.

"Stop calling me that, and you cheated!" He said approaching the fence to scowl in her face. She gave him her best smile, hooded eyes, pouty lips and he stood flabbergasted. "Only a little, Wolfy." Wolfgang muttered something and Ludwig snickered as the other man roared angrily as he stalked off. "Stop calling me that!"

"Oh man, he hates you." Ludwig said turning back to her. She grinned.

"Most people do."

He grinned pressing his forehead against the fence crooking a finger for her to come closer. "Only most." He whispered as he kissed her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Arnold and Gerald passing them on the sidewalk. Arnold glanced at her curiously then resumed chatting with his friend. She shut her eyes in a grimace and pressed closer to Ludwig as much as the fence would allow.

Maybe she wasn't as over him as she might have thought.

Distantly, she heard the school bell ring signaling that class was beginning and that she was already running late. She sighed. She didn't mind running late, she actually preferred it. The quiet vacant hallways and not having to worry about the thousands of eyes that followed her as she walked to her locker and classes.

Ludwig's grin was feral as he pulled back and he pressed against the fence suggestively, wiggling his brows at her. "So uh, should I go tell Wolfgang I'm checking out early?" He whispered huskily.

She sneered and pulled back.

"Uh, no! You want me to skip again? Criminey Ludwid, this would be the third day in a row!" She scowled throwing her hair back over her shoulder as she stepped back from the fence.

He glared back at her. "Why not?"

"Because, unlike you, I want to graduate and get the hell out of that place." She turned to go and he walked alongside her.

"I did get out." He said. Helga snorted. "You dropped out."

"At least I'm out!" He'd come to the end of the fence and could go no further; Helga was relieved. "Yeah, whatever." She called over her shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

_The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting._

-Sun Tzu

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><p>The school bell rang signaling the change from third period to fourth and the hallways flooded with students immediately following. Helga popped her gum and sighed at her friend's babbling as she threw her Lit. Book haphazardly inside. The way their lockers were set up, she couldn't actually avoid this particular group of girls, so at the beginning of the year she decided to grit her teeth and bear with it. From left to right there was herself, Phoebe, Lila, and finally Rhonda much to her discomfort but she found that as time passed, the people she once considered mild acquaintances were now actually pretty good friends.<p>

She groaned however in annoyance as Rhonda sighed and Phoebe giggled. "Ugh, look at it! The tip is too round and bulbous." Rhonda said inspecting said appended in a small mirror attached to her locker door. Helga stood back to watch her, hand perched on her hip and gum popping loudly in frustration at the girl's petty antics.

"I look like I have a cherry stuck on my nose. It just doesn't belong on my face." Her finger pushed her nose to the side at an awkward angle making her look strange. Helga scoffed. "So dump the face and keep the nose."

Rhonda's hand dropped to her side as she turned to glare at her while the other girl's laughed. Phoebe adjusted her glasses as she eyed the girl next to her. "Why so dressed up today, Lila?"

Lila stepped back from her own locker and brushed a hand down her front. Her button up, silk blouse coupled with the long, tan skirt gave her the air of sophistication while her low bun and small, wire rimmed glasses gave her the image of intelligence to match. "You like it? I got a temp job as a secretary at the newspapers starting this afternoon. I think it will be ever so exiting!" She trilled, leaning into her locker, arms hugging her books close with a smile larger than life.

"Wow, that's great." Phoebe grinned, averting her eyes as she saw someone coming up behind her.

Helga smiled. "So you're gonna be a hot shot newspaper lady, huh? Sounds like fun."

"Hi Gerald." Phoebe smiled as the tall African boy with outrageous hair walked up and kissed her. Helga turned and closed her locker to lean against it glancing at Arnold who stood a little off to the side of her.

"Wow, Lila, you sure look mighty purdy today." Stinky said as he slid his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek, mindful of his spiked bracelets to keep from snagging her delicate clothes. "Aww, thanks hun." She smiled.

Sid draped back against Rhonda's locker with a playful grin and pinched at her shirt tails knowing it would tickle her. "Hey, how come you're never that nice to me?" He asked her as she continued examining her nose. "Because _you_ never compliment _me_ like _that_." She said tilting her chin to try and get a better angle.

Sid chuckled.

"Well, aww shucks Rhawnda, you sure are lookin mighty purdy yerself today too." The county slang sounded foreign on his tongue and his friends laughed at the sound of it while his girlfriend only glared. He shrugged and kissed her anyway, wet and sloppy knowing it would annoy her.

"Eww!" She shouted pushing him away and averting her eyes with a little grin.

Sid leaned towards Helga and jerked the dirtied, worn Dickies shirt playfully from her grip. "Heard you were giving lube jobs down at the old man's service station Helga." He teased and she jerked the shirt back with a feral grin. "Stuff it, Sid. Least I got a job."

Sid grinned. "Yeah, but I got a rich girl that loves me. I'm livin the high life." He smile pulling Rhonda flush against him even though she protested when she couldn't see her mirror properly. Helga snorted. "Yeah, wonder how long that will last." She muttered, earning a snicker Phoebe.

"You're working at the station?" Arnold asked her.

She glanced at him as she stuffed her shirt through the slats in her locker door to keep from having to open it again. "Yeah, what's it to you, Football-head?"

"Just curious, might drop by and see you sometime." He said with an easy grin.

"What'cha gonna do, drive the Packard? That things so old, it would die a block away from your house." Gerald scoffed.

"I could take my bike. The chain needs greasing anyway." Helga snorted and turned away from him. Was he making fun of her? She bit back a heated remark and ignored him.

"How come you were late to class this morning, Helga?" Lila asked adjusting her hair in Rhonda's mirror.

Helga blew a large pink bubble until it burst with a loud 'POP' and crossed her ankles as she leaned back against her locker door. "I was busy." She said mildly.

"Busy tongue wrestling Ludwig…" Gerald said and Helga punched him.

"Ah, geez woman!" He moaned rubbing his shoulder.

"Stuff it!"

Lila sighed and turned tugging Stinky's hand. "Oh, Helga. I wish you would listen to me and stop seeing him. I've been hearing some awful things about him and his past girlfriends…"

Helga groaned and banged her head back against the locker door.

"Maybe you should listen to her, Helga."

Blue eyes slid to green and narrowed dangerously. Today was not turning out very good so far and seemed to be only getting worse. "I've also heard some…things." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"And what would that be." She drawled.

"Curly said he sent his last girlfriend Stephanie to the hospital with a broken nose." Stinky said.

"And given the way he used to beat up on us all the time when we were younger…" Arnold started.

"Are you trying to say I can't hold my own in a fight?" She asked him, her voice level and smooth. This was dangerous ground and almost unconsciously, the others began backing away from the two.

"No, I just."

"That's all in the past now, and frankly it's none of your business." Arnold's eyes widened a bit at the shear coldness in hers. "Besides," She added as an afterthought.

"I can promise you all that if any of that was going on, Ludwig wouldn't be walking much less kissing me." She smiled then and it threw him off balance. She had a nice smile, even if it was as cocky and sure as this one.

"Right." He found himself agreeing.

The others heaved a sigh of relief that the impending doom had passed.

"Hey Rhonda, keep it up and you might crack that mirror." Harold's harsh laugh echoed across the hall. Rhonda huffed. "Laugh you jerks, but wait till I show up on national television!" She gloated.

Harold made a fist in front of his face to annoy her. "Yeah, you may turn up on national TV but all they'll see is that baseball in the middle of your face!"

Sid snickered and Rhonda huffed again pulling deftly away from him and stalking down the hall. "That's it, the nose goes!" She yelled.

"Oh, come on Rhonda!" Sid hollered, rolling his eyes at her.

"I wouldn't fool around with mother nature if I were you Rhonda." Lila yelled after her tugging Stinky along behind her.

Helga chuckled and pushed off from her locker whipping her hair out behind her and accidently smacking Arnold in the face.

"Why not? She fools around with everyone else, Lila!" She mocked, earning an enraged shriek from the girl in front. Arnold hung back and Gerald sighed looping an around his shoulders. "Hey man, what are you worrying about? Helga can take care of herself."

"I'm not worried." He said. "I'm just…concerned."

Gerald steered him down the hall and asked teasingly, "Why, you suddenly in love with Helga?"

"No." He laughed, elbowing the boy away from him. Gerald grinned. "Then there's nothing to worry about."

Arnold said nothing to that but by then, they had already reached the class.

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><p>She looked like a mix between Joan Jett and Debbie Thornberry leaned up against the brick wall like that, concealed in shadow and the lone glow of her cigarette lighting up her features. She crossed her arms and blew the smoke out in a steady stream that dissolved quickly above her head. He glanced around; making sure no one saw him walk around behind the old Gym.<p>

It was crumbling and due to be torn down next year, luckily for Helga, she hopefully wouldn't be here that long to still need use of its services. She said nothing as he came to sit on an old crate across from her, elbows perched on his knees as he stared. She had doffed her leather jacket leaving it crumpled at her feet and she stood in only her white tank, cut raggedly above her belly button to show a good bit of skin. Her piercing glinted in the sunlight and his eyes traveled to the line of bracelets that traveled up her arms. He thought he saw something red under the hem of her shirt over her left breast that looked suspiciously like a tattoo but she shifted and it was gone. Though most people would be too afraid or think it too bold to just walk up and sit in front of Helga Pataki willy nilly, he'd learnt not to be afraid of her anymore. Wary sometimes, for certain but never afraid. She'd suddenly let up on her bullying several years ago for some reason and though he certainly found it a relief he couldn't say he wasn't concerned. He'd always be concerned for her, though he could never actually say why.

She had been a part of his life since before he could remember. As a bully, a classmate and a semi-friend, he found he couldn't quite help a certain measure of protectiveness.

"Since when did you smoke?" He asked.

She said nothing and took another slow draw from her cigarette. Her breath came out in a stream of smoke and for a moment he envisioned her as a dragon. Fierce and dangerous, she eyed him like a boy who had foolishly wandered into her domain; blind to the danger he had exposed himself to.

"What do you care?"

For some reason, she always got really defensive when he asked personal questions like this. He sighed. "Helga, you're my friend, and it's bad for your health that's why."

"Criminey, what are you my surrogate mother now? And since when were we friends?" She scoffed, but that scoff slowly melted into a small grin and he smiled in relief. She held her hand out, cigarette balanced precariously between her fingertips.

"Don't knock it till you try it, Footballhead." She said, her voice changing to a deeper, huskier tone that he hadn't heard directed towards him in years.

Arnold paused and he had to admit, she was good and she knew it too from the way her lips pursed into that catty grin. He wondered how easy it would be to just stand up and put her teasing to the test. To call her bluff.

But then his conscience would grab hold of him and slap him back into reality. His goody goody sense of honor would drag him down and he would remember the old Helga and that this was not her. The old Helga wouldn't stoop to this level to get what she wanted. Not saying it was exactly a _bad idea_, he thought as he swallowed thickly, but it was just the wrong way of going about getting his attention. Then he thought of Ludwig and how he wanted the jerk away from her. Deep down, he knew she was a good person. She deserved better and he just knew Ludwig would hurt her and maybe she would bounce back, but there was always that nagging thought that…maybe she wouldn't.

He shrugged more at his own musings than her offer of the cigarette. "Sure."

Her uni-brow arched to one side and she regarded him with wary amusement. "What? Mr. Goody two shoes Arnold Shortman is actually going to do something that goes against his golden code of honor? Aren't you worried what people will say about you smoking with 'Big, Bad, Helga Pataki?" She mocked.

He gave her a flat look and leaned back on his crate gesturing around him with a swoop of his arm. "I don't see anyone else do you? Who's gonna know unless you tell them?" He said daringly, a smug smile adorning his lips.

She leaned back with a grin of her own as she took another drag and exhaled slowly with a wicked cheshire grin.

"Who says I won't?"

He paused, regarding her with a calculating look and Helga restrained herself from fidgeting under those dark green eyes. This was either a test or a very intense game she… _they_ were playing. Finally, he shrugged and reached out his hand and played his turn.

"Who says I care?" He took it from her noticing with a grin as she stiffened when his fingers brushed hers. He grinned, realizing he'd captured one of her pawns in this little game. _She's not so bold after all._ He thought, taking a drag. Just one more thing to add to the ever growing list that defines Helga G. Pataki.

He then exhaled in a series of hacks and coughs as he choked for air, glaring as she laughed.

"Oh, sorry I forgot to tell you, you shouldn't inhale unless you're used to it." She gave a cynical laugh and snatched the stub deftly back from him, an expression of stoic indifference plastered on her face as their fingers brushed once again. Check but not mate.

"That was awful!" He choked.

"Oh, don't be such a baby." She muttered taking another drag and leaning back into the wall behind her. He coughed and wheezed a second or two more and after he'd finally gotten his breathing under control, he slumped over his knees and glared up at her. She sucked in another breath easily and he envied that she could pull it off so well while he was stuck looking like an idiot. Finally she sighed and dropped the glowing butt to the gravel, grinding it furiously under the toe of her shoe. "Yeah, what do you want?"

Arnold pulled up his leg so that his heel rested on the edge of the crate and propped his arm across his knee as he stared quizzically at her.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not stupid Arnoldo! You and I don't hang out behind old buildings smoking ciggy's together. You wouldn't normally be caught dead with me alone, so what is it? Money? Drugs?" She scoffed and he could only stare wide-eyed as her pitch lowered with her anger and she leaned forward to glare at him eye to eye. "What, are you having a little girl trouble Footballhead?" She whispered with a cruel smirk. "You want to chauffeur me around on your arm to make some chick jealous? Is that it?"

"N-no! Helga!"

She sneered at him and propped a booted foot on the edge of the crate by his hip so that the inside of her thigh brushed his shoulder. He flushed, whether from anger or embarrassment, she couldn't say but something deep swirled in his green eyes and Helga almost grinned. It was too easy to tease him. She vaguely wondered how far she'd get before his honor bound sense of duty reared its ugly head. Leaning in, she propped her arm on her thigh, and his face was filled with the vision of her cleavage as she leaned in to whisper.

"Or do you want something else?" Her breath ghosted hot over his skin and he shuddered visibly. She was so close, so warm. Something inside was screaming at her to stop, to pull away. To just leave to stupid boy alone and storm away, leaving him to stew in his own juices. But the smell of his cologne wafted across her nose and she found herself frozen in place. Memories flashed through her mind, visions of pining her life away for this stupid, ridiculous, horrible, wonderful, handsome, brave, amazing boy! Suddenly, she found if she tilted her chin just so, she would be kissing his jaw line, nipping at his neck. Tasting that sweet nectar of his cologne to see if the taste was as amazing as the smell.

Arnold was afraid to move. Terrified to push her away and run like the devil was at his heels and even more terrified to lean into her, and see where it might lead. He glanced a flash of red and looked down. From under her shirt he caught the corner of what looked like a red heart, and some kind of letter inscribed in gold with a peek of brown. He longed to pull the fabric down and reveal the whole tattoo before his eyes but his pride and his honor held him back. His hands itched, he wanted so bad to touch her. Seconds ticked by, and suddenly his hands were on her shoulders. She felt a shiver run through her and then he was pushing her away, a blush painting his cheeks and green eyes averted.

It hurt her that she had been denied again; it hurt even more now that he wouldn't even look at her. So when Helga was hurt, she did the only thing she knew how. She got mean.

"Hmph, pussy!" She snorted ripping her jacket from the ground and throwing it on. His eyes shot back to her in shock. "Helga, I don't want anything from you!" He said in irritation as she insulted him one time too many. She ignored the way that stabbed at her heart and pulled her collar up around her ears. "Yeah, well, feeling's mutual." She growled as she began to walk away. Class was ending soon.

"No, that's not what I meant!"

He jumped up grabbing her wrist and she wrenched it free fixing him with a glare. "Don't _touch _me!" She all but snarled in his face and he backed up a step. Arnold sighed. "Helga, we've been enemies since pre-school. This is our last year together. Why don't we try to be, I don't know, friends?" That floored her and she stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. "What?" She laughed caustically. "Why?"

"Why not?" He grinned. "Shake things up a little."

He stuck out his hand, hoping she'd at least grace him with a handshake. She glanced at him, his hand, then back at him. "You don't want to do this." She said, her voice losing all sense of humor. "I'm not exactly the best person to hang around."

"Helga." His voice was stern as he fixed his green gaze on her. She'd seen that look before. That look of determination that said when he wanted something, heaven nor hell would keep him from achieving it. She frowned and turned away, walking down the alley and back to the new Gym. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn ya."

Arnold grinned and stuffed his hand in his pocket.


End file.
